Victory for Taddy at The Tough One '09
Taddy Blazusiak has started 2009 in style by winning the WOR Events organised The Tough One, staged in Oswestry, Wales. Competing in the event for the second time having finished as runner-up in ’08, in winning the fifth running of the race Taddy claimed his first international victory of the new season. Finishing the two-hour extreme hare scramble comfortably ahead of his closest rival, Taddy was joined on the podium by WEC regular Tom Sagar and former Hell’s Gate winner Wayne Braybrook.
With the race getting under way with a Le Mans style start Taddy found himself in fifth position by the time he arrived at his bike, which meant he would spend the opening laps of the race playing catch up as Wayne Braybrook and David Knight battled it out for the early lead. Switching back to a 250cc two-stroke KTM for ’09 having campaigned a 200cc EXC during ’08, Taddy was quickly in his stride, doing his best to avoid the many stranded riders around the course, and with Braybrook dropping backwards closed in and past Tom Sagar for the lead.
Once in the lead Blazusiak remained out front until he received the chequered flag shortly before the two-hour mark. Making few mistakes during the event Taddy ended the race feeling tired but thrilled to have started ’09 with a win. Making it the perfect day for Blazusiak he then topped The Boulder Dash - a short sprint across a technical, unforgiving and demanding section of rocks.
Taddy now heads to Italy where he will compete in the Genoa Indoor Enduro – round two of the FIM Indoor Enduro World Cup. After one round of the series Taddy sits a close second behind Spaniard Ivan Cervantes.
Results – WOR Events, The Tough One ‘09
- Taddy Blazusiak (KTM Enduro Factory Team)
- Tom Sagar (Husaberg)
- Wayne Braybrook (Gas Gas)
Taddy Blazusiak:
“The Tough One was the one extreme event missing from my resume, so I am really pleased to have won. It’s not best suited to trials riders because it is more of a hard cross-country race, so to win it is really great. It’s a shame that David Knight and Paul Edmondson had problems, but I felt that I rode well. I had quite a good start but some of the bigger riders pushed me back so I wasn’t at the front by the time we had run to our bikes. I was about fifth or sixth off the start. I knew I had to push hard for the full two hours if I was going to win, which is what I did. Tom Sagar was riding really well, and making me work really hard during the first hour. I was just keeping an eye on my pit board during the second half of the race – I could see that I was far enough in front not to worry too much, but at the same time I was still pushing because anything can happen when you get in with the lapped riders.”
